Additional student funding
While half of the federal funds were earmarked to be passed directly to students for aid, institutions could also spend some of their institutional fund portion on students. Together, public institutions spent about $638 million (21% of total institutional expenditures) on extra funding for students (Figure 4). This additional student funding includes additional emergency aid; reimbursements for housing, room, and board; other fee refunds; and tuition discounts. Most of it (59%) went for tuition reimbursement, followed by additional financial aid (36%). One campus we interviewed funded students’ basic needs by funding the student pantry and providing gift cards for food. Multiple community colleges also forgave student debts for classes and services, which enabled student re-enrollment.
Auxiliary revenue replacement
Many non-academic sources of campus revenue were impacted by the pandemic. Public institutions spent about $552 million (20% of total expenditures) on replacing them. Campuses mentioned many different sources of lost revenue in the quarterly reports, but the most common were parking, food service, bookstores, athletics, and childcare facilities. Some less-common examples included the rental use of campus space by outside organizations, police operations, and museums.
Enrollment revenue replacement
Many institutions lost revenue due to a decline in enrollment, and while for some campuses it was brief, for others it still persists. Public institutions spent a total of $370 million (17% of total expenditures) on replacing revenue associated with reduced or delayed enrollment. These include lost revenue from tuition, fees, institutional charges, room and board, enrollment declines, supported research, summer terms, and summer camps. Many campuses noted lost tuition revenue due to enrollment declines in resident and nonresident students. The 2021 state budget reduced campus funding by 3–5 percent, which some campuses later claimed in this category. This enabled them to mitigate the impact of the temporary reduction until funding was restored and augmented the following year.
Social distancing and health
California institutions spent about $370 million (15% of total expenditures) on making their campuses and students safe during the pandemic. This included the costs of subsidizing off-campus housing or housing costs to isolate students or provide space to stop the spread of infections, adding class sections and subsidizing meal service to accommodate social distancing, general campus safety and operations including cleaning and personal protective equipment, and purchasing additional instructional equipment to limit sharing and provide time for disinfection. The largest portion of this money was spent on campus safety, which included personal protective equipment; testing; and upgrading heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems. Campuses we interviewed mentioned using the funding to purchase supplies for lab classes and mail them to students, or to provide PPE kits for in-person instruction. Many also mentioned incentives to encourage their students to get vaccinated; for instance, one campus offered $100 gift cards that could be spent at their campus bookstore.
Online instruction
Most courses at most institutions moved online. California’s public colleges and universities spent about $344 million (14% of total expenditures) on the transition. This included providing additional technology hardware such as laptops or tablets to students, purchasing training for faculty and staff in online instruction or paying staff trainers extra, and purchasing equipment or software to enable distance learning. Multiple campuses found that reliable, high-speed internet connectivity was the largest barrier to participation in distance education. In quarterly reports, many campuses noted providing Wi-Fi hotspots to students and faculty and purchasing monthly data plans on their…
Read More: COVID-19 Emergency Funding and California’s Higher Education Systems